Off-Duty Officer, Teachers Praised For Stopping School Shooting Before It Got Worse

UPDATE AT 6:51 P.M. EASTERN — Firefighter Jamie Brock is the hero who apprehended the shooter, according to a new police report.

An off-duty police officer is being hailed as a hero after stopping a school shooter before he could kill anyone.

According to the Greenville Times, a 14-year-old teenager opened fire at Townville Elementary School in Anderson County, South Carolina this afternoon. Two students and one teacher were shot but are not in life-threatening condition.

In a home near the school, the shooter's father was found shot dead by his son, according to WVFF 4. No motive for the shooter has been released, but police are not calling it an act of terrorism or racism.

Authorities say an off-duty officer "subdued" the teen shooter. They are also praising the actions of school staff who they said used what they learned from a recent emergency drill and got everyone else to safety before more people could get shot.

Local pastor and fire department chaplain Rev. Kyle Caudell confirmed that "Everything went off just like clockwork. It could have been a ton worse."

Not all the details are clear, though, because Gavin Jackson of The Post and Courier is reporting that unarmed volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock stopped the shooter on the school's playground.

Still fresh in the public's memory is the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 young children and six adults, as well as the shooter's mother.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is visiting the scene, released a statement saying, "As we work together with law enforcement to make sure they have the support they need to investigate what happened in Townville, Michael and I ask that everyone across South Carolina join us in praying for the entire Townville Elementary School family and those touched by today's tragedy."